An Cosantóir

An Cosantóir September / October 2023 www.military.ie/magazine 26 | THE MEDICAL CORPS STANDARD COURSE BY CPL SHANE CURRAN "Leadership is a highly personal, individual matter. Each leader must establish his own approach based on an internal compass using a method geared to his personality, his capabilities but always oriented towards accomplishing the mission while knowing and taking care of his men." — LT GEN HAROLD 'HAL' MOORE C ontinuous professional development is key to becoming and remaining an effective leader in both the tactical and clinical environment. Recently the Medical School successfully ran its Corps Standard course. The aim of this course is to develop key leadership and management skills, in both clinical and tactical settings, which will improve both the individual and the Medical Corps capability. The completion of this course, along with the All-Arms Standard NCO Course is essential for a Corporal in the Corps to qualify for promotion to the rank of Sergeant. The course takes place over six weeks and consists of several modules: • Clinical Leadership for NCO's • Medical Intelligence • Medical Orders • Major Incident Medical Management • Medical Planning At the conclusion of each module the students working in syndicates are required to prepare presentations based on real world scenarios to assess their capability and competency in each area. These scenarios challenge the students to use both medical and tactical knowledge to successfully complete the tasks, particularly in the final module where all the skills acquired are tested in a larger scale scenario. This article will explain the modules and learning outcomes contained within the course and attempt to shed some light on the skillset required to be an effective leader within the Medical Corps, indeed many of the skills will be like those required in most leadership roles throughout the Defence Forces. CLINICAL LEADERSHIP FOR NCO'S The Clinical Leadership module takes place in the Royal College of Surgeon's (RCSI) Graduate School of Healthcare Management in Sandyford, Dublin. RCSI is Ireland's only health sciences focused university which was founded in 1784 as the national training body for surgery in Ireland. Accordingly, the Clinical leadership module is the first stage of the course, it is 10 days long and covers a range of areas including: • Leadership & Emotional Intelligence • Managing Oneself • Overview of the Irish Health Service • Leading and Managing Change • Learning Review • Goal Setting • Reflective Practice • Multidisciplinary Teams in Healthcare • Managing and dealing with conflict in the workplace • Presentation Skills • Introduction to Quality in Healthcare • Process Mapping • Introduction to Patient Safety & Risk Management • Clinical Leadership & Management • Learning Review Team Presentation • Delivery of team presentations and Q&A The various areas covered during this module develop the individual's ability to manage teams and oneself both physically and psychologically. Indeed, the area of managing oneself serves to inform the student on how to develop a ''toolbox'' of skills which allows them to manage themselves using good diet, physical activity, self-checks, and practices such as meditation or breathing exercises which in turn may help the individual to avoid burnout. Consequently, these skills can be used in combination with the skills of emotional intelligence to identify when team members may need to develop similar practices. The tutors leading this module come from mainly clinical backgrounds and have extensive experience working in leadership and management roles, they have a vast wealth of experience and range of skills which are key to successfully working in high stress environments. MEDICAL INTELLIGENCE The medical intelligence module takes place in the Medical School, DFTC. This module develops the student's ability to find and evaluate information relevant to medical aspects of a mission and to turn this into usable intelligence. Accordingly, medical intelligence is a very important aspect of the mission as it is used to inform the mission commander of threats such as endemic disease, vector borne disease, most likely types of injury and medical assets that may be of vital importance to force protection. This also challenges the student to think not only at section/ platoon level but also to think at strategic level and examine areas such as local assets, which may be of benefit to the force commander including local medical resources. Following this, students are given an individual task of preparing a medical intelligence brief for a Force Commander, this brief is based on a specific area of a country including countries from the Middle East and Africa where the Irish Defence Forces have deployed. Students are given several days to prepare their brief, as they would be in a real scenario, by gathering information A planning board from the medical planning module of the Medical Standard Course A simulated casualty used during pre-deployment training Students from CMU receiving a lecture during on MIMMS

• Cover